A. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.

B. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.

C. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on!



I'm using this desktop cause Matt made it for me!  He was using my computer while I was away getting new glasses, and when I turned on the 'puter for work the next day, this greeted me!  I think it's adorable, and I love that he surprised me with it, which is why I've kept it on for the last month.  I think he made it in Word, which is pretty hilarious, but it's the thought that counts, yeah? Only embarrassing part is displaying it at work, but so far no one has made any negative comments, and *I* think it's cute at least.  :)

In addition to everything else, it ended up being a GREAT running weekend!

On Friday, I had the afternoon off work and since it was gorgeously sunny out, I wanted to try my hand at a longer run. Since 3.5mi was my max, I challenged myself to run 5 miles out on the W&OD trail (a cool paved trail with mile markers). It was soooo hard, but worth it. I can't even describe how accomplished I felt at the end! The only downside to this plan is that I was running a 5K the next day, and worried a little about overexerting myself... ended up being a valid concern. By the end, I seriously strained my right foot because of it's tendency to supinate (turn inwards) while running.

Fun Facts:
- I ran the first 3.1 miles (5K) in 31:30 and figured this would probably be my time for the 5K
- Because of some poor planning, I finished the 5 still a mile away from where I started
- The worst part of the run was the heat - ended up being in the 80s and there was NO shade!
- Around mile 4.5 I stopped having control of my bladder. I've heard of this happening in marathons, but seriously? I had to literally concentrate on not peeing while I was running. Luckily I was dehydrated as well...
- The water fountain I passed around mile 5.5 is my new best friend ever.
- Total calories burned: ~800
- Total time: 50 min for the run, 1:10 at the end

Saturday was my 5K at the Mercer Festival. It was the first "official" 5K I've run, with timing chips and everything! I woke up with my foot still pretty sore and my knee sore too, which made me kinda regret Friday's run. I had iced my foot and taken ibuprofen, but some soreness lingered. It ended up not really hurting so much once I started running, though. There were about 100 people there, between the 5K and 1 mile fun run. Course was pretty flat, on the roads, with an annoying uphill at the end. A lot of people passed me right at the start, making me feel lame, but I kept on at my tortoise's pace and even passed a couple of people by the end. I think I finished somewhere around 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the crowd. I put on some speed during the last 50 yds or so, but would not have been able to keep going if it weren't for 2 other people who synched up with right at the end, who declared we would all finish together, and kept me going at a good pace. Final time was 27:15, which was waaayyy better than I was expecting!

Meanwhile, feeling totally on track and psyched for my 10K next month!

Since I have so much time on my hands lately (see incredibly appropriate icon-usage) I've been thinking about redesigning my LJ. It hasn't gotten a lot of attention since I made the current layout, even though I've thought about redoing it. But then I realized that, other than me, not a lot of people see my layout since you all (I'm sure) read updates through your friends page.

But... I've also been thinking for a long time now about trying to start an actual BLOG instead of a journal, like my LJ tends to be. I guess I'm exposed to so much social media many people who talk to a more global audience that I want to get in on the action. If nothing else, I have a lot of friends off-LJ who I'd like to be able to share things with. Combine this with the desire to create a shiny interface that a lot of people would see, and... well, it's got me thinking.

The thing is though, I LOVE LiveJournal. I know, it's had its problems and in some ways it's geared more towards high school girls than my friends and I, but I'm loyal to it nonetheless. I've been using LJ ever since klgrem sent me an invite (yes, I go back to invite days!) in 2002. That's 6.5 years of history on this site. I've changed to a different journal name, but other than that, LiveJournal holds my public history since high school. Not to mention, I know all the ins-and-outs of the system, I have tons of friends on here, I like the features that LJ offers but many other "blog" sites don't: communities, icons, privacy filters, threaded comments, memorable entries... And I like that all of you can check my updates on your friends page, instead of having to remember to check my website or going through a blog roll.

So my dilemma, I guess, is trying to find a way to keep updating my LJ and keep the features that I like about LJ, while branching out to a non-LJ audience. So far I'm looking into domain-forwarding and embedding LJ into another website. Does anyone else have any ideas? I'd like to free myself from the LJ structure a little - be able to use more widgets and have control over the HTML/CSS. Does anyone on my flist have a "blog" that they keep tied to their livejournal? Is there a greater advantage to keeping them separate?

So darthsemicolon pointed me toward musicyardsale and now I have sooo much new music! Currently loving albums by Missy Higgins, Duffy, The Flaming Lips (forgot how much I liked them!). I'm also trying a few new bands: Charlotte Sometimes, The Fratellis, The Decemberists - and hoping I like them. Actually, I'm kinda hoping I won't like the Decemberists cause they played at Knox a few years ago and I didn't go see them. Would hate to regret that now.

Forgot to mention, I joined at Improv Troupe! One of my twitter friends (@smary_) who lives in Ashburn mentioned that her troupe, Mission Impromptu, was having auditions so I tried out! I got in, and got to meet an online friend in RL, which is always fun. :)

Okay, so I've been hating on Shortpacked! lately, cause the current storyline sucks balls but today's strip actually made me laugh out loud and have to cover my mouth so my boss wouldn't hear. Come on Willis, keep it going!

I could talk about the massive car problems I've been having, but they make me angry, so I'm not. But GRRR car.

And in final news, I think I'm going to decorate my cubicle with this: Invader Wall Graphics. You know, cause it'd be fun. And cause car debt always makes you want to spend money on frivolous things.

What words do you associate with me? Reply anonymously if you want to be completely truthful! Click here!

Anyway, yeah, Fridays suck. I have work to do, but can't be arsed to do it. Instead I have:
- Checked Twitter, Facebook, and LJ a million times
- Read my old SG fanfiction from my old LJ
- Looked up the history and fun facts about Girl Scout cookies
- Wasted time in a kazillion other ways

A band I like is playing tonight and my friend Matt wants me to go, but I already made dinner plans with my cousin. :( Plus it's in Springfield, so I'd have to go right after work and wouldn't get to change first. And since my work clothes today are super lame, I'd rather just skip it.
Tomorrow I'm volunteering with SVDC to make meals for Food & Friends. I was supposed to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC afterwards, but I think my friend bailed on me, which is just as well. I'm going to the movies with another couple of friends that night anyway, so it gives me some time to get home, etc. Sunday I'm hoping to take it easy. I've had stupid busy weekends the last 2 weeks and I really just need some downtime! To clean, mostly. And maybe... garden? One hopes!

So one thing I forgot to mention in my Brain Dump post of all-the-stuff-I'm-currently-into is: Running! Actually, I've been into running ever since I did the Couch 2 5K program during summer of 2006, but my aspirations were never big. I wanted to run a 5k (and did!) and maybe, one day down the road do a 10K. WELL - that one day down the road has ARRIVED! I signed up to run a 10K on May 30. Leaving me about 10 weeks to prepare. I'm currently running at about the 5K level, so while this is a challenge, I don't think it's undoable.

But as I'm preparing for my 10K, I've gotten more and more into the training. First and foremost, I went to a running store and bought some good shoes that don't hurt my toes or give me blisters. Then, I invested in a Heart Rate Monitor. This was both to track calories burned during exercise, and to watch my exertion during runs. So far it has been a success, and my first could of runs have had increased endurance because I slowed down to keep my heart rate in check. :)
What's next? Interval/Fartlek training? Tackling hills? A half-marathon? A full marathon? Umm... unlikely. But we'll see.

In other news...

I just started watching How I Met Your Mother (I know, I'm about 3 seasons behind) and it gives me little geeky orgasms of delight because of all the Freaks & Geeks guest stars. Yay!

I had to get my truck repaired A LOT this month. First to replace the front 2 tires, which blew out because my alignment was so off-kilter. Then ordering/installing the ball joint to fix the alignment, and oh yeah, replacing the front 2 tires AGAIN. Because the time it took to order and receieve the ball joint was just enough that my fucking long ass commute* wore down my tires to the point of exploding. AGAIN. Seriously. It's cool, I totally wanted to spend my whole tax refund on car repairs. Yep.

Uh... crap, now I'm so angry again that I can't think of anything else to say. Whatevs. More life later, when I can think again.

Dear Self,

Stop falling in lust with cute indie boys who live on the other side of the country. Even if they do have pretty eyes. And a sexy voice. And killer fashion sense.

Dammit.

No love,
Me

No, seriously? This guy is ridiculously attractive - he's stylish (and those eyes!), is the lead singer in his band, and liked Goodbye Lenin!
*sigh*
Except he lives in LA and is probably a dick in real life - like all boys. :P



Maybe I should stop stalking guys on the internet and do some real work today...

[ETA:] See? Joey Comeau understands me!

My head seems to be exploding lately with things I want to do! I don't really have enough money or time for all of it, but if I did... Just to get it out of my head, here's the stuff I've been interested in lately - and, hey maybe some of you are into these things as well! We can bond!

( Holy LJ Cut, Batman! This list got long! )
So yeah. Add to that the normal just-out-of-college desires for travel, alcohol, organic food, and then wanting to explore DC, hang out with friends, play with the kittens, and oh yeah, I gotta work - and I seem to have no time for anything lately. :( I can't wait til summer when the days are longer and my mind is tricked into thinking I have more time for stuff.

This weekend's To-Do list:

• Wash, dry, and fold all laundry


• Hem and iron dress pants


• Empty/Refill dishwasher


• Plan weekly meals and create grocery list


• Start herb garden on deck


• Catch up on SparkPeople

Meanwhile, I wish the weekend were here already. I started my new project for the IRS yesterday and so far am bored out of my mind. Basically, I'm just reading through code and trying to learn the forms and such that I'll be reviewing. I have to get a background investigation done before I can do any real work, though, so I'm just wasting time, basically. My tech lead is nice, but young and more than a bit awkward. Knoxians can picture a much shier Matt Andersson (with short hair) and have a good mental picture of this guy. A woman who works a few offices away showed me around and has been very helpful, and the receptionist is very nice as well and has a good sense of humor. Other than that, I haven't really met anyone else in the office yet. It's a larger project than AF DCGS - about 85 people, so 3x the size. And I sit in a cubicle, so there's not a lot of mingling with other people. I know I'll get used to it, but right now it's really lonely. I miss having lunch with Sean, and joking with Phil, and doing stupid shit with Matt to annoy Mike. I've been talking to a few people on IM, so that helps. (psst: if you're on AIM or gChat, talk to me!)

So that's what's going on right now. I've been really lazy the past couple of days (hence the long to-do list above) and just watching the Office at night instead of cleaning up my place. So it's kind of a mess right now. On the bright side, no one ever comes over, so I'm not really compelled to keep it neat. Okay, /pity party.

I've been reading about Container Gardening and am looking forward to giving it a try! I love plants, but have a tendency to kill them. Maybe a little research and giving myself some room would help. I have a whole balcony that's unused, and enough creativity to find some containers. My first goal is to have a working herb garden, so I can stop buying fresh herbs at the store! After that, maybe some vegetables and flowers. *fingers crossed*

So today was my first day of being "on the bench" or between projects. AF DCGS is officially over, though I have to go in tomorrow and help supervise the packing/shipping of our computers, but other than that - OVER. Meanwhile, I'm loving this stay-at-home-work-in-shorts thing, but I think it's going to be over far too soon. I had an interview today with an IRS project and they offered me a position... ( details here, if you're interested. ) I'm hesitant, though, because while the role sounds interesting (if not ideal) and the people are nice, it's a helluva commute. 1.25 hours each way, and it took nearly a quarter tank of gas. *cries* Meanwhile, I have two other projects who are interested in me, but because they're not a "given" my manager is encouraging me to go with this one. Le sigh.

In other news, this weekend was pretty fantastic. The dinner thing with my Twitter friend ended up not being as big a deal as I was worried about - we got Indian food and then went to a bar to chat. Pretty fun, but I don't know if we hit it off so well that we'll start hanging out on a regular basis. At least, I expect we won't.
Then Saturday I went on a 4.5 mile hike with a group from Meetup.com and that was stellar - great hike, perfect weather, friendly people, and afterwards, delicious English food. We went to a turn of the century English restaurant that raised their own lifestock and had almost completely organic foods. I had Chicken Pot Pie and we split some absolutely mouthwatering deserts, like Blueberry Bread Pudding and Bailey's Irish Cream Pie... OM NOM NOM. SO GOOD.
After that, I went to laser tag w/ my friend Matt and then got ridiculously drunk back at his place. Like, 2008 Flunk Day drunk (ok, maybe not that bad). But I ended up crashing on his couch (haha, like half the other people there) because I was in no condition to drive home. We were up til 6:30 playing video games, too... not sure how I managed that, since I was hardly coherent at that point.
Sunday, still nursing my hangover, I went to the mall with Valeria and picked up my shiny new used guitar! <3 I haven't messed around with it too much yet, but hopefully I'll pick up some chords and basic songs... I don't have too high of hopes, I just want to play with it. We had dinner back at her place w/ Mitesh, and we watched a few episodes of Freaks & Geeks (remember how I told you how awesome this show is like a million times? Well, it is). My fricking wonderful sister, operachk19 gave it to me for my birthday. ♥!

Okay, I suppose I should write my RDM back and let her know I'll take the project offer. Ho hum.

ETA: Clearly I need a whole need tag: tagerific, just to describe posts like these which use almost every freaking tag in my set. Ye gods.

Well, it's been a month since I started Mission: 101 in 1001 and... I haven't made that much progress. Not a big deal, I have another 2.5+ years, and some of them take some planning.

Here's what I have done, though:

026. Make my own pizza (2/21/09)
I think I posted about this, but a few Saturdays ago I had Val and Mitesh over for homemade pizza! It turned out pretty well - I burnt the crust a little, and it was a bit too chewy, but good. I made a pepperoni/mushroom and a goat cheese/fig pizza, both which were rather tasty. I want to try again and really get the crust down, but it was certainly a fun first attempt!
Oh, if you're interested, here's the recipes I used:
Jay's Signature Pizza Crust - I only used 1 cup of white flour and the rest whole wheat flour
Fig and Goat Cheese Pizza - I used a sweeter goat cheese, which made it taste like dessert pizza, and followed the suggestion at the bottom of adding a ricotta cheese 'sauce'

035. Attend 5 Meetup.com events (1/5)
I went to a Zumba class that was advertised on Meetup.com. It was... interesting. I liked it, but it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I prefer that my exercise doesn't feel like work. :P Also, the instructor really rubbed me the wrong way, and I'm not sure why. I don't think I'll be going back.

View the Complete List

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say thank you for all your kind comments and virtual hugs yesterday. I'm doing okay, but can't respond more thoroughly to comments with out bursting into tears... and since I'm at work, I hope you'll understand why I'm writing globally instead.

*hugs* You guys are awesome, and I don't know what I'd do without the support of all my friends online.

I love this time of day. On weekends, at around noon or so, the kittens fall asleep and I love sitting here and quietly typing or reading a book or something, and the whole apartment just feels relaxed and home-like. The only thing that would make this better is a cup of tea.

The boys got neutered on Friday and vet's orders are to keep them apart so that they won't fight and rip out each other's stitches. So I've been keeping one shut up in my bedroom (switching which one) with his own food and litter box and everything - but they're so sad and lonely! They just mew and cry and put their paws under the door! I feel like such a bad mom. :( So when I can watch them, I let them both out here so they don't feel so alone. I still have to keep them separated at night and when I'm out of the house or overly distracted, but it's a little better at least.

Last night I made pizza from scratch! Yummy pepperoni & mushroom pizza with a whole wheat crust, and an experimental fig and goat cheese pizza with ricotta sauce that was actually pretty good. Tasted like desert pizza. Valerie and Mitesh came over and we played "Grave Robbers from Outer Space" and drank like the young adults we are. (ie: not too much so that they could drive home at 10:30 when we were all exhausted. lame.)

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. :( I wish I were on the bench like Sean, cause then I could just sit around the house all day and play with the kittens. *sigh*

Plans for the day: sushi! and the gym.

( Silly meme, stolen from facebook )

So there is absolutely nothing to do at work today. I asked 4 people above me, and no one had work. Even my boss gave me a task and then told me not to do it. He instead gave me something that took 5 minutes to do and nothing else. Today, everyone on the team took an 1 1/2 hour lunch as a "send off celebration."
I can see why my last day here is Friday. :\

I had something else to say, but I forgot what it was. Huh.

Did LiveJournal turn into "Undead Journal" for anyone else today? It looked like their Halloween theme, but... it's not Halloween?

In other news, I must really convince myself to not write Veronica Mars fic based on Your Ex-Lover Is Dead. Remember: VM is dead, and you never wrote for that fandom anyway. Not to mention you haven't written fic in years. Ah, but the song is SO pretty!

I've done nothing today. Unless reading half the archives of Girls with Slingshots counts as something. I don't think my boss would agree...

So the project I'm consulting on (AF DCGS) is ending this month. That was more or less expected. Of course, they chose the shittiest way ever to transition us - basically telling us we shouldn't look for new projects on the off chance that we get an extension on this one. The kicker is - we won't know if we'll get an extension until after the project has already ended! So they just want us to wait around for a month...? Not to mention, they're basically kicking us all off the project 2 weeks earlier than expected.

Whatever. I like the people on this project, and I like the work (usually), but it has to be the most poorly managed project that IBM has right now.

So I'm looking around for new work, and might have a lead doing Java development for FEMA. *crosses fingers*

I realized today that I want to go back to college. It's weird, because when I was there I always thought I would go on to get a higher degree, but once I got out, I sort of forgot about it. I figured I'd be working for the rest of my life. But I really do want to go back and get a Masters or PhD before I'm 30. This gives me lots of time, of course, and in this economy I'm certainly not going to give up my job and go back to school. But maybe in 3-4 years, once I've figured out what I really like doing and the job market doesn't suck as much... I really do want to go back. Somewhere where I can be a full time student again - not online courses.

I feel stagnated right now. Like I haven't been challenged enough, and that's making me lazy. I'm hoping this new project will alleviate some of that, but I've been trying to get out of my rut. This month so far I've gone to swing dancing classes, Zumba, rock climbing, and finished two books.

I just want to have my curiosity back.

I also want new user icons. Hm.

Since I saw this on softlykaoru's lj here it is. If you see this, post your favorite poem. This has been my favorite poem since middle school. For a while, I had it memorized, but most of it has sadly slipped away by now...

( Curiosity by Alastair Reid )

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?: Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.
- from dayzeroproject.com

START DATE: February 01, 2009
END DATE: October 30, 2011

LEGEND:
Completed! (Date finished)
In progress (# complete - if applicable)
abandoned

( The List )

Haha, you all should know by now how much I love lists! I've been compiling this for almost a month now! Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Anyone else game to start their own list? :)

So on the plus side - I'm home! Remember my rant last month about how I hadn't spent more than 5 days at home in the last 2 months? Yeah, it didn't get any better in January. I had two business trips this month, plus the journey to New Orleans for Sheena's wedding. And even one of the nights I could have been home, I spent in DC with Sean cause it was his birthday. Not that either of the last two things were bad. I LOVED New Orleans - reminded me of Europe in all the best ways. Small little cafes with delicious coffe, such good food, a compete walking/public transit culture (in the French Quarter at least), cool bars, social people... Plus, the wedding went super well. Sheena looked gorgeous, Matt refrained from being an ass (most of the day, lol) and we had a fun time in general. And going out to DC with Sean was fun, too, though it probably would have been more fun had I not forgotten my ID... but I got to hang out in DC for the Inauguration the next day, and even thought I didn't go to the National Mall (yeah, I'm not CRAZY) I still had a really good time watching it on TV with, like, 60 other DCers. Such fun.

BUT the business trips, the driving, the not having my kittens! All make me so very glad to be home now, with MONTHS ahead of me and no planned travel. I got to go to the grocery store and actually BUY FOOD! Without worrying that if I didn't eat in in 2 days, it'd go bad during the week I was out of town! And I got to sleep in, cause I didn't have to get 20 million things done over the weekend in preperation for leaving again. Happiness. :)

But now that life has slowed down, I really gotta get started on straightening some stuff out. Like cleaning the apartment... it's respectably tidy right now, but dirtiness lurks in unmopped floors and scummy toilets. Ew. Plus, I need to focus on exercising again - since all I've been doing for 3 months is eating out, practically. Grocery store run yesterday helped with that (yay for healthy foods!) but I need to hit the gym, hard. Ya.
What else? Need to get finances in order, look at joining some activities so I can meet some people outside of work! - Have I mentioned how much I miss my friends??? :(
Oh, and I need to give the kittens a bath.

So, that's life right now. Hopefully you'll see me around a little more now that I'm home again!

W00t!  Only took me 10 days to get around to it!

So - in the past 4 weeks, I've spent 5 nights in my own apartment.  How sad is that?  I am SO sick of traveling right now...  Luckily, I'm back home now for another WHOLE 5 DAYS before I leave for New Orleans on Wednesday.  And when I get back?  Right back on another business trip!  Auuuugggghhh.

But the kittens are back home with me!  I picked them up from my parents this morning.  I have to figure out what I'm doing with them during my sister's wedding, but at least my cousin will watch them for my new two business trips.  (And then, hopefully no more trips??)

So that's my life in a nutshell.  Lots and lots of travelling.

Last weekend was nice, I got home from Oklahoma and got 3 nights back at home.  My friend Matt had a rockin' Luao party on Saturday night, Sean took me to dinner before we went and then he spent the rest of the weekend over here.  It was lovely.  Not seeing your boyfriend for 3 weeks right after you recover from a huge fight?  Not so cool.  But as I said, seeing him again was great - we talked a lot - not about us breaking up or the fight we had, but about, I dunno, future plans and life outlooks and favorite ice cream flavors and stuff like that.  I guess I just feel a lot better about where we are right now.  Maybe it's hard to tell because we get so little time together, but I really do think things are good.

Anyway.

The kittens keep using the space between my back and the couch as a tunnel for their chasing.  Sillies.

So, I'll keep y'all posted on the wedding, and work, and kittens and everything else known as my life.  Hope your 2009s have gotten off to a great start!

[ETA:]  Did any one else see Colbert's shout out to Knox College? Watch it on Hulu  It comes up about 5-6 minutes in on Wed's episode.